Whole Food Plant Based Diet for a Healthy World

I am delighted to let all my patients, readers and friends know that I have completed the eCornell online six week intensive training program in Whole Food Plant Based Nutrition.

The course was fantastic! It was led by Dr. T. Colin Campbell and it was based on his tremendous research from his book The China Study. I learned in the course that a whole food plant based diet is able to  prevent as well as to treat the two most common diseases in America, heart disease and cancer.

Aside from Dr. Campbell's excellent lectures, there were many other speakers as well. One of my favorite lectures was by Douglas Lisle Ph.D. who spoke on "The Pleasure Trap". This lecture was about how our own biochemistry and neurochemistry get stimulated by street drugs and junk foods into a persistent cycle that keeps us trapped in our addictive drug or food behavior. Of course he talked about how to get out of this painful cycle that SO many Americans are stuck in. I recommend his book The Pleasure Trap to you. Or you can get the DVD.

My other favorite lecture was by Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D. His lecture was on how to prevent and reverse heart disease using the Whole Food Plant Based Diet. He is a prominent surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic and after many years of working as a breast cancer surgeon he wanted to look into how to prevent the chronic diseases of America. He focused on heart disease and in his amazing lecture in the course he showed us before and after photographs of coronary angiograms showing how advanced heart disease had completely reversed when people followed a Whole Food Plant Based diet for a few years.

I was truly impressed, and I am already speaking with my patients who have coronary artery disease about using this diet as a treatment. In recent days the most prominent individual to adopt this diet is President Bill Clinton. President Clinton was interviewed about this diet by Wolf Blitzer of CNN and you can watch his interview at this site:

President Clinton lost weight back to his High School weight and looks forward to seeing the diet bring him benefit for his heart disease. He had to have coronary by-pass surgery and some years later the newly implanted arteries clogged again and he need a stent put in to keep the new artery open. That was the stimulus for him to go on this diet.

If you or your family has heart disease, please do consider reading Dr Esselstyn’s  book and trying the diet !

To learn more about this course go to this site for the course.

and you can watch the intro video here

Also a wonderful new movie about the Whole Food Plant Based Diet just came out starting Dr Campbell and Esselstyn and others. I highly recommend it ! It is called Forks over Knives.

I look forward to writing more articles on my blog about the benefits of a Whole Food Plant Based Diet.
Please let me know your thoughts!

 

The Japanese Translation of My Book Has Been Published!

I am delighted to announce that my book,.The Vitamin D Revolution has been published in Japanese.I love the cover!

There has been great interest in my book in Japan.  If you have friends there let them know they should be taking their vitamin D everyday.

Versions in other languages are being worked on as well and I will keep you posted!

 

Facial Care, Beauty and Environmental Medicine

Several weeks ago I gave a lecture at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills entitled Facial care, Beauty, and Environmental medicine. I was very honored to share the stage with Ken Cook, the president of the Environmental Working Group. Ken gave a beautiful lecture on "10 Americans" that the Environmental Working Group has studied.

We were there on behalf of Tata Harper who sponsored the event. Her facial care products are totally pure and contain no harmful chemicals.

Studies show that when the average American woman walks out of her house in the morning, she has already applied over 120 chemicals to her body, in the form of moisturizers, lipsticks, makeup, shampoo, and conditioner. The major class of chemical in these products is called phthalates, and these chemicals are associated with everything from childhood behavioral disorders to breast cancer.

European countries which are quite aware of this, have banned over 1000 chemicals in personal care products. In the United States only nine chemicals have been banned.

The connection of these chemicals with human health is profound and I plan to discuss this in future articles on my blog. Information on these chemicals is coming out in the medical literature at a rapid pace. All of us need to pay attention to the personal care products that we use. We all need to try to avoid chemical products, and instead use products made with natural ingredients.

I can recommend two books will which help you understand how these chemicals cause health problems.

The first is No More Dirty Looks in which the authors Siobhan O'Connor and Alexandra Spunt review the categories of chemicals we all get in our personal care products and what diseases are associated with these chemicals. They then recommend healthy brands of products that do NOT contain any chemicals.

The other book I recommend is Slow Death by Rubber Duck written by Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie. In this book they discuss the chemicals in our products and what they can do to us.

The event was video taped and I expect to make my talk available for you to see.

Let me know what you are doing to avoid phthalates and keep yourself and your family healthy.

Here is a photo of me with Tata and Ken:

 

My Lecture on Staying Healthy in Los Angeles

I gave my lecture at the Sheila Kar Foundation event last Sunday at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. I was very gratified by the reception I received. There was a surprisingly large crowd for a Sunday morning.

My topic was "Vitamins and Supplements: If I'm Not Sick, do I Really  Need Them?"

I discussed six of the basic nutrients that I recommend at The Khalsa Medical Clinic everyday to keep my patients healthy, and the rationale behind them. I talked about the "Spectrum of Health" and how most of us are in the center "gray zone". We talked about how our body makes energy and how we stay healthy.

Here are a few of the comments that I received after the event.

"Thank you Dr. Kar. The seminar was very informative, I could have listened to Dr. Khalsa all morning."

The mother of one of the hospital doctors wrote: "Great presentation – absolutely worthy of my time. Every physician needs to know the info. it is a loss that you guys did not go. I wish that I know in advance to ask u guys to go. Everyone will benefit from it – for a much better health, to feel good and regain the vigor (life force) of life. Very very good."

The event was videotaped and I look forward to making it available on DVD. Let me know if you or your organization would like me to speak on how to stay healthy! Also let me know if you would like a copy of my handout from the event.

 

I Will Be Teaching at UCLA

I have accepted an opportunity to teach medical students at the prestigious David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, starting this September.

After more than 30 years of practicing integrative medicine, I realize that it is time to share what I have learned and what I've been doing with young medical students and medical doctors, as well as the general public.

Through my blog I have been sharing my knowledge with the general public. However, I felt it was a necessity in my life to also be able to train young medical doctors.

Starting this September, I will be teaching a course to second-year medical students called "Doctoring". In this course I will be paired with a psychologist and we will be teaching young medical students how to interview patients, and get their history and how to help patients deal with difficult problems, from drug addiction to a cancer diagnosis. This course is not so much about the science of medicine at the art of meeting with the patient, and meeting their needs.

A recent study in  JAMA showed that if a patient comes to their doctor with more than two complaints, that the chance of the second complaint ever being addressed is 8%. This study was shocking to me as an integrative doctor, because I recognize that the body is an inter — connected web of organs and not just a narrow view of one organ system and one complaint. So knowing ALL the patients symptoms is important.

This course at UCLA is a required course and all medical students must take it. It goes on their permanent deans record that they use to get into a residency program.

I will be specifically teaching eight or nine students throughout the year. I expect it to be a very fun course. That is because UCLA uses what are called "standardized patients". When I heard this expression I asked what it meant?  A "standardized patient" is a professional actor who has been taught and trained to act out all parts of any given disease that the doctors are assigned for the day. The "patient"  will know the signs and symptoms of the disease and they will be able to intelligently answer the medical students questions while the psychologist and I look on and teach the students how to interact with them as a patient.

My partner in the course,who is a psychologist, has been doing this for a number of years and she told me that it is not only very valuable but also can be fun.

I look forward to telling you about the "cases" that we see, but  most importantly I  look forward to helping the students to learn that they must listen to the whole patient, with a compassionate ear.

It is wonderful that medical schools are starting to do this.

What has been your experience with interacting with physicians? Have you had to interact with physicians taking care of a loved one? How has your experience been? Let me know what you think?

 

My Lecture at UCLA

I was one of 5 speakers to a pre-med class of students at UCLA who are taking a course entitled "Introduction to Integrative East-West Medicine". The students came from all over the world to study.
My friend Ka-kit Hui, M.D., F.A.C.P is the Chairman of the Course and invited me to share with the students my perspective on integrative medicine as a primary care doctor in private practice.

The other speakers included my friend Myles Spar MD, MPH who is the director of the Venice Integrative Medicine Clinic, at the Venice Family Clinic. Also Richard Pietras MD, Ph.D. who is the chairman of the Stile Program in Integrative Oncology at UCLA spoke. And Ping Ho, MA,MPH who is the director of the UCLArts and Healing Center spoke.

We each spoke to the students about our work and showed slides of our offices and projects.

After our talks we then all sat on a panel and answered questions from the students about integrative medicine from our perspective.

I had a really good time and enjoyed meeting my colleagues to see what they are doing. I look forward to more teaching opportunities in the near future.

Here is a nice picture of the five of us!

From left to right : Dr Pietras, Dr Hui, Ping Ho, Dr Soram, Dr Spar
 
 

I Will Be Speaking at UCLA on Integrative Medicine This Week

I will be talking about integrative medicine to pre-med students and professors this Tuesday morning at UCLA. This course is chaired by the head of the UCLA Department of integrative Medicine Kah Kit Hui, M.D.

I will give you a full report about the conference afterwards.

“Confronting Cancer as a Chronic Disease”- The IFM Convention

I am just recently back from the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM) convention in Carlsbad, California. The subject of this year's symposium was "Confronting Cancer as a Chronic Disease: Primary Care Taking a 360-degree View."

In all, 21 countries were represented and attendance was sold out at 600 people.

I have been a member of the Institute for Functional Medicine since its inception. It was created by my longtime friend and colleague Dr. Jeffrey Bland.

The 4 day conference had a full schedule with lectures starting at 7 AM and closing around 6:30 PM every night.

Even though I have attended so many other IFM conventions, this is probably the best one I have ever attended. All aspects of integrative oncology were discussed. Lectures on the role of antioxidants in cancer prevention and treatment were part of the conference. Other topics were nutritional and botanical support during cancer therapy, individualizing nutrition protocols to complement Cancer care, and using biomarkers for primary prevention in secondary recurrence of common cancers.

The conference was organized by my friends Mary Hardy, M.D. and Dwight McKee, M.D, Ph.D.  Dwight and I attended medical school together and were friends throughout school.

                Dr Soram with Mary Hardy, M.D.

 

            Dr Soram with Dwight McKee, M.D. Ph.D

Two of the most prominent speakers were Dr. Dean Ornish, and Dr Keith Block. Dr Ornish gave a lecture entitled "The Power of Sustainable Changes in Diet and Lifestyle". Dr. Ornish has carried over his amazing findings on diet and lifestyle for the benefit of heart disease and is now using it to benefit cancer patients. You can pick up his new book by clicking HERE.

Dr. Ornish was also the recipient of the Linus Pauling Person of the Year award, given for his work showing the benefit of diet and lifestyle for chronic disease. I was delighted to learn during his lecture that he was a student of Swami Muktananda, who was very good friends with my teacher Yogi Bhajan, and I was able to share a few words with Dr. Ornish about our teachers, and have a photograph taken with him and at the end of his speech.

 

            Dr Soram with Dean Ornish, M.D.

 

Dr. Keith Block gave an information packed lecture entitled "Long-Term Biologic Strategies for Ssecondary Prevention of Cancer". Dr Block has written a great book explaining his approach to integrative oncology. You can pick it up HERE.

Some of the lectures were very medically detailed. However, many were understandable by lay people and I wish some of my cancer patients had been able to attend some of these wonderful lectures and learn. In any case I am bringing back to my practice all the exciting new information about using integrative medicine for cancer patients. For those of you who would like to get a sample of these lectures, I am delighted to say that Jeffrey Bland's opening talk entitled "Looking Anew at Cancer" is available online for free by clicking this link.

I have already shared some of the new information from this convention in my blog and I look forward to sharing much more over the weeks ahead with all my readers.

 

“Confronting Cancer as a Chronic Disease”- The IFM Convention

I am just recently back from the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM) convention in Carlsbad, California. The subject of this year's symposium was "Confronting Cancer as a Chronic Disease: Primary Care Taking a 360-degree View."

In all, 21 countries were represented and attendance was sold out at 600 people.

I have been a member of the Institute for Functional Medicine since its inception. It was created by my longtime friend and colleague Dr. Jeffrey Bland.

The 4 day conference had a full schedule with lectures starting at 7 AM and closing around 6:30 PM every night.

Even though I have attended so many other IFM conventions, this is probably the best one I have ever attended. All aspects of integrative oncology were discussed. Lectures on the role of antioxidants in cancer prevention and treatment were part of the conference. Other topics were nutritional and botanical support during cancer therapy, individualizing nutrition protocols to complement Cancer care, and using biomarkers for primary prevention in secondary recurrence of common cancers.

The conference was organized by my friends Mary Hardy, M.D. and Dwight McKee, M.D, Ph.D.  Dwight and I attended medical school together and were friends throughout school.

                Dr Soram with Mary Hardy, M.D.

 

            Dr Soram with Dwight McKee, M.D. Ph.D

Two of the most prominent speakers were Dr. Dean Ornish, and Dr Keith Block. Dr Ornish gave a lecture entitled "The Power of Sustainable Changes in Diet and Lifestyle". Dr. Ornish has carried over his amazing findings on diet and lifestyle for the benefit of heart disease and is now using it to benefit cancer patients. You can pick up his new book by clicking HERE.

Dr. Ornish was also the recipient of the Linus Pauling Person of the Year award, given for his work showing the benefit of diet and lifestyle for chronic disease. I was delighted to learn during his lecture that he was a student of Swami Muktananda, who was very good friends with my teacher Yogi Bhajan, and I was able to share a few words with Dr. Ornish about our teachers, and have a photograph taken with him and at the end of his speech.

 

            Dr Soram with Dean Ornish, M.D.

 

Dr. Keith Block gave an information packed lecture entitled "Long-Term Biologic Strategies for Ssecondary Prevention of Cancer". Dr Block has written a great book explaining his approach to integrative oncology. You can pick it up HERE.

Some of the lectures were very medically detailed. However, many were understandable by lay people and I wish some of my cancer patients had been able to attend some of these wonderful lectures and learn. In any case I am bringing back to my practice all the exciting new information about using integrative medicine for cancer patients. For those of you who would like to get a sample of these lectures, I am delighted to say that Jeffrey Bland's opening talk entitled "Looking Anew at Cancer" is available online for free by clicking this link.

I have already shared some of the new information from this convention in my blog and I look forward to sharing much more over the weeks ahead with all my readers.

 

I Will be Giving the Keynote Address at SCNM Commencement

I am delighted to announce then I have been asked and will be giving the keynote address at the commencement service for the graduates of the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine (SCNM) summer class in July 2010.

I am  honored to be asked to give this most important address to the new graduates of this wonderful Naturopathic Medical School.

I continue to serve under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's appointment, on the Committee for Naturopathic Medicine for the State of California. I am delighted that natural medicine, which I have been practicing for over 30 years, is starting to blossom in our country.

I look forward to seeing the graduates in July.

If any of my readers are interested in attending this school at which I am a professor, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

Next Page »